Where We Are
Our office is in Portal, Arizona, a small village of birding fame in Southeast Arizona. Arizona does not go on daylight savings time, so in the winter months we match time with New Mexico, just seven miles down the road, on Mountain Standard Time. In the summer we hang with California, on Pacific Time.
How to Reach Us
We value your questions and interest in our tours, and are happy to answer questions. At all times, email is the best way to reach us; we are online all day, and this is our fastest response.
Office Hours
Our office staff work remotely in all time zones. We answer phones Monday through Friday 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Mountain Time.
Please leave a detailed message if you call after hours.
Please Note
- We have someone on-call for traveler emergencies; we check phones every few hours and also share contact of our destination hotels with travelers for further or alternate assist. Those traveling also have an emergency cell contact for us to use with voice or text.
- If you are not reaching us by phone, please try again! Note that the phones roll over to voicemail if we are on another line and your call will appear as a message we listen to on our computers. When leaving a message, you will hear a delay (it is a voice mail service) please do leave your message as your call is important to us!
Small, but Special!
We are a small company that handles operations of all our tours, in addition to sales, registration, and booking. This way we see the process all the way through and can give very personal service. However, during major winter storms or just prior to a major tour, we must take care of operations first, so please bear with us if we do not respond to a new call right away.
Who You Are Calling
In a village of just 300, Naturalist Journeys is lucky to find skilled and personable help for our mission to offer exceptional experiences. Peg Abbott is the founder, owner, and CEO for both sides of our combined companies. She has worked in ecotourism, guiding, and birding for over 35 years and has traveled on all seven continents. Peg is assisted by a host of knowledgeable guides for tour design. Christina Hanisch and Elissa Fazio make up our Client Services team. Jessie Hallstrom and Laura Koehne are our friendly travel planners. Behind the scenes, Julie Fannon and Amelia Morrow are invaluable at helping with our marketing, copywriting and promotion, while Tamara Winkler, Rick Weiman and Katy Estrada, CPA, keep our accounting and operations straight, and Mason Flint takes on special projects. It takes a village!
Our Staff
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Founder, Co-Owner & CEO
Peg Abbott is the owner and lead guide of Naturalist Journeys, LLC. She has been designing, guiding, and organizing natural history tours for more than 25 years, working for the National Audubon Society and other organizations before launching Naturalist Journeys, LLC in 1998. Her work has taken her from Alaska to Africa and Argentina, as well as many other locations around the world. She has conducted research on several bird and mammal species and keeps a close interest in Yellowstone and Mexican wolf reintroduction projects. Her interests include all aspects of natural history and geology. After 20 years in and around the Yellowstone area, Peg relocated in 2003 to the birding mecca of Portal, AZ. -
Co-Owner & CMO
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Sales Manager
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Administrative Manager
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Marketing
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Sales
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Client Services
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Client Services
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Client Services
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Client Services
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Client Services
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US Operations
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US Operations
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International Operations
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Accounting, International Operations
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Accounting